Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Meat producer acknowledges ‘downer’ cows entered food supply

Nasty, nasty, nasty...

Posted on CNN: 02:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) — In his first public testimony since his company’s product became the subject of the largest recall of meat in U.S. history, the president of Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. acknowledged Wednesday that at least two “downer” cows depicted in hidden-camera videos appeared to have entered the U.S. food supply.

He previously had denied any had gotten into the food supply.

Still, there was “less than a minute chance of that product being contaminated,” Steve Mendell told the Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Wednesday’s hearing was the latest in a string of hearings prompted by the company’s voluntary recall on Feb. 17 of 143 million pounds of beef — representing the Chino, California, plant’s output since February 1, 2006.

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